Japan said to have floated idea of a negotiated settlement to Diaoyus row

The Japanese government has made overtures to Beijing for talks to solve the dispute over the Senkaku Islands, which China refers to as the Diaoyu Islands and over which it claims sovereignty.

Sources told the Yomiuri newspaper that Tokyo had proposed a negotiated settlement to the long-running row at a summit meeting.

The proposal would be a significant concession by the Japanese side, which has previously insisted that the uninhabited islands are an "inherent part of the territory of Japan" and claims that no dispute exists because their sovereignty is not in question.

The emergence of the offer to China coincides with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision to send an offering to the Yasukuni Shrine on Friday to mark the shrine's autumn festival.

The shrine honours the souls of Japan's war dead, including 14 Class A war criminals, and Beijing was swift to condemn the prime minister's actions.

"China expresses serious concern and firm opposition to negative trends that are emerging in Japan in relation to the Yasukuni Shrine," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement. "Only if Japan earnestly faces and deeply reflects upon its past history of aggression and clearly limits its militarism can Sino-Japanese relations realise sound and stable development."